2009-08-14

Scent Articles

The dogs and I have been working on scent articles more and more, now that I understand a little more about how to teach them. I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy schmancy articles so we are using spoons and leather work gloves. Or rather, Bailey is. Buzz is using canning jar lids--he only needs metal.

Tonight I was able to successfully work 3 metal with Bailey and she was "actively working" the pile. And getting the correct one. I was clicking after the pick up tonight. I think we had four successes and then an incorrect. When I moved into her to pick up the correct article, she didn't know what to do with the one in her mouth. She has been taught not to drop anything unless told to, so she was very conflicted about that and I took it from her with the tongs. The next time I sent her she frantically grabbed an incorrect. Gargh. Packed up the metals for tonight.

Moved onto leather which was more of the same. She frantically grabbed an article, but it wasn't a stress response, I don't think. It seemed more like a game we used to play--pick up.

So, as Kristen would say, "go back a step." And we will, tomorrow. Tomorrow we will work two metal articles and I will click for sniffing/touching the correct one. I then plan to work a scented leather with an unscented metal. Try to set her up for success.

In other news, I worked Buzz in the shadows of the basement and he was CLEARLY responding to my light-clicker. He was breaking position to come to me for his reward. YAY! We worked downs and it was gooooood.

The dogs and I have been doing quite a bit of training, I just haven't had time to post about it. Yesterday we went tracking, in the heat... in case we need to track in the heat. Bailey's track was only aged about 15 minutes but it was hot, dry, and we worked pavement. She was great until our turn on pavement, she had to work it a bit but we did get it and find the final article in gravel. I'm trying to get her on as many surfaces as possible right now so we actually stand a fighting chance of being able to run a VST test (my ultimate goal).

I'll try to be better about posting training updates, so I can get more feedback too.